Lesson #4 from Endeavor’s Fastest Growing Companies: Focus on the “core” of your business

Oct 10, 2012

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CLICK HERE to read the full Endeavor Insight report, “Emerging Market Entrepreneurs Have Emerged: A look at the fastest growing entrepreneurs in Endeavor’s portfolio”

Among Endeavor’s fastest growing entrepreneurs, focus on their core business was the most important source of growth–over expanding to new customers, new products, new geographies or new channels. For these entrepreneurs, focusing on the core by avoiding distractions and fully tapping their primary market opportunity before pursuing other growth avenues was pivotal to their success.

To be clear, focusing on one’s core business is not to be confused with not adapting one’s model to the market. Indeed, as Rafael Duton, founder of Brazilian mobile services company Movile (nTime), commented, “We have not made aggressive changes in our business model but we definitely adapted it because we are in a really dynamic market.”

Moreover, maintaining focus does not mean missing opportunities for growth in adjacent spaces. As an example, The Bakery Shop, an Egyptian company founded by Basel Mashhour and Tarek el Nazer which sells baked goods to Egypt’s upper class, launched a second-tier brand called Delicious Bakery. This brand was aimed at a more mass market. In Basel’s words, “[we] realized our potential was capped because the target was quite niche, so we launched a second-tier brand to a more mass consumer.” Key to this launch was leveraging the knowledge gained from their core business to pursue a more scalable opportunity.

Learn more about maintaining focus while adapting to dynamic market environments, and other key lessons from Endeavor’s fastest growing entrepreneurs, by reading the full report here.